The Big Answer

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(Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System)

"Prenatal care is a critical component of health care for pregnant women and a key step towards having a healthy pregnancy and baby. Early prenatal care is especially important because many important developments take place during the first trimester, screenings can identify babies or mothers at risk for complications and health care providers can educate and prepare mothers for pregnancy. Women who receive prenatal care have consistently shown better outcomes than those who did not receive prenatal care. Mothers who do not receive any prenatal care are three times more likely to deliver a low birth weight baby than mothers who received prenatal care, and infant mortality is five times higher. Early prenatal care also allows health care providers to identify and address health conditions and behaviors that may reduce the likelihood of a healthy birth, such as smoking and drug and alcohol abuse." (Source: http://www.americashealthrankings.org/ALL/PrenatalCare United States Prenatal Care (1990 - 2011), United Health Foundation)

Mothers who do not receive any prenatal care are three times more likely to deliver a low birth weight baby than mothers who received prenatal care, and infant mortality is five times higher

Sixteen percent of pregnant women in the United States in 1990 received inadequate prenatal care. Thirty percent of Hispanics, 27 percent of blacks, and 16 percent of white mothers skimped on prenatal care. Thirty-three percent of single mothers (three times the rate of married women) received inadequate care. But inadequate care was most prevalent for the youngest mothers: 37 percent under age 18, and 30 percent of 18 and 19-year-olds didn't get adequate attention. In 2007, 70 percent of pregnant females received early and adequate prenatal care—30 percent did not. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenatal_care_in_the_United_States)


(Source for both chart above: America’s Health Rankings®— 2012 Edition, ©2012 United Health Foundation)